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What do babies learn before they can even explain what they feel? And how much of our adult mental health is shaped by those first relationships?

Jungian psychoanalyst Katherine Olivetti joins Bipolar She to talk about infant attachment theory, early childhood development, the parent-child relationship, and the invisible rules and family dynamics we grow up with. We explore what children do when a parent can’t tolerate their anger, sadness, neediness, intensity, or independence—and how those early adaptations can shape adult mental health, relationships, identity, depression, anxiety, and emotional regulation.

We also talk about repression, the Jungian shadow, parent-child rupture and repair, and the selves we create in order to stay loved. What happens to the feelings we bury? What happens when the parts of ourselves we learned to hide keep showing up in adulthood? And can healing those early patterns change our mental health decades later?

This is a conversation about infant attachment, psychotherapy, and the childhood lessons that may still be shaping our mental health long after we grow up.

More on Katherine Olivetti HERE.

Books

The Guided Dream Journal: Record, Reflect, and Interpret the Hidden Meanings in Your Dreams

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Bipolar She is dedicated to real conversations for women living with mental illness. Hosted by Janine Noel, the majority of episodes give voice to a woman who has lived-life experience with mental illness--or who has experienced the illness of someone close to them. Along the way, I interview experts in the field that address additional mental health concerns.

Frankly, coping with a mental health condition can be exhausting. Here's a place where you can land and find an episode that resonates with you. Some topics we've covered: being a bipolar mom or having a bipolar mom. Anxiety, agoraphobia, chronic depression, ECT, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, a psychiatrist that breaks your trust. A therapist who goes above and beyond to help you. The impact of trauma on your brain.

Bipolar She couldn't have thrived without guitarist, JD Cullum's original music.

Editor Brandon Moran makes everyone's voice sound both crisper and smarter.

Sponsored by Amy Vincze's Emotional Freedom Technique App: Soar With Tapping.